Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe’s poem The Borough. The «borough» of the opera is a fictional village which shares some similarities with Crabbe’s, and later Britten’s, own home Aldeburgh, on England’s east coast, around 1830.
It was first performed at Sadler’s Wells in London on 7 June 1945, conducted by Reginald Goodall and was the first of Britten’s operas to be a critical and popular success. It is still widely performed, both in the UK and internationally, and is considered part of the standard repertoire.
• Click for libretto ⇑
• Characters:
Peter Grimes: A fisherman, a solitary figure, who finds it impossible to integrate with the society about him. Ellen Orford: A widowed schoolmistress who loves Peter. Captain Balstrode: A retired sea captain, one of the kindliest inhabitants of The Borough. Mrs Sedley: Lonely, gossipy and addicted to laudanum. Ned Keene: An apothecary, who provides Mrs Sedley with her laudanum. Auntie: Landlady of the Boar Inn. One of the more tolerant members of The Borough. Auntie’s Nieces: Young girls who work as high-class prostitutes in The Borough. John: Peter Grimes’s new apprentice, accidentally killed by his master.
♣ Synopsis ⇔ highlights 
• Prologue
Peter Grimes is questioned at an inquest over the death of his apprentice. The townsfolk, all present, make it clear they think Grimes is guilty and deserving of punishment. Although the coroner, Mr. Swallow, determines the boy’s death to be accidental and clears Grimes without a proper trial, he advises Grimes not to get another apprentice. As the court is cleared, Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress, attempts to comfort Grimes as he rages against what he sees as the Borough community’s unwillingness to give him a true second chance.
• Act 1
The chorus, who constitute «the Borough», sing of their weary daily round and their relationship with the sea and the seasons. Grimes claims to be in desperate need of help to fish, and his friend, the apothecary Ned Keene, finds him a new apprentice (named John) from the workhouse. Nobody will volunteer to fetch the boy, until Ellen (whom Grimes wishes to marry) offers.
When Ellen brings the apprentice to Grimes at the pub that evening, Grimes immediately sets off to his hut, despite the fact that the Borough is weathering a terrible storm.
Balstrode: For peace sake, someone start a song.
All: Old Joe has gone fishing and Young Joe has gone fishing and
You Know has gone fishing and Found them a shoal.
Pull them in handfuls, And in canfuls, And in panfuls
Bring them in sweetly, Gut them completely,
Pack them up neatly, Sell them discretely, Oh, haul a-way.
(Peter comes into the round: the others stop.)
Peter: When I had gone fishing When he had gone fishing
When You Know’d gone fishing We found us Davy Jones.
Bring him in with horror! Bring him in with terror!
And bring him in with sorrow! Oh, haul a-way.
• Act 2
On Sunday morning, while most of the Borough is at church, Ellen talks with John, the apprentice. She is horrified when she finds a bruise on his neck. When she confronts Grimes about it, he brusquely claims that it was an accident. Growing agitated at her mounting concern and interference, he strikes her and runs off with the boy. This does not go unseen: first Keene, Auntie, and Bob Boles, then the chorus generally evolve into a mob to investigate Grimes’s hut. As the men march off, Ellen, Auntie, and the nieces sing sadly of the relationship of women with men.
At the hut, Grimes impatiently drives the ever silent John into changing out of his Sunday clothes and into fisherman’s gear, and then becomes lost in his memories of his previous, now dead apprentice, reliving the boy’s death of thirst. When he hears the mob of villagers approaching, he quickly comes back to reality, stirred both by a paranoid belief that John has been «gossiping» with Ellen, so provoking the «odd procession», and at the same time feeling defiant. He gets ready to set out to sea, and he tells John to be careful climbing down the cliff to his boat, but to no avail: the boy falls to his death. When the mob reaches the hut Grimes is gone, and they find nothing out of order, so they disperse.
Scene 2 ⇑ Grimes’s hut is an upturned boat. It is on the whole shipshape, though bare and forbidding. Ropes coiled, nets, kegs and casks furnish the place. It is lighted by a skylight. There are two doors, one (back center) opens on the cliff, the other, downstage, opens on the road. The boy staggers into the room as if thrust from behind. Peter follows, in a towering rage. He pulls down the boy’s fishing clothes which were neatly stacked on a shelf.
Peter: Go there! Here’s your sea boots. Take those bright And fancy buckles off your feet. (He throws the sea boots down in front of the boy.) There’s your oilskin and sou’wester. Stir your pins, we must get ready!
There’s the jersey that she knitted, With the anchor that she patterned. (He throws the clothes to the boy. They fall on the floor around him. The boy is crying silently. Peter shakes his shoulder.)
I’ll tear the collar off your neck. Steady. Don’t take fright, boy. Stop. (Peter opens the cliff-side door and looks out.)
Look. Now is our chance! The whole sea’s boiling. Get the nets. Come, boy!
They listen to money These Borough gossips, Listen to money, Only to money. I’ll fish the sea dry, Flood the market. Now is our chance to get a good catch Get money to choke Down rumour’s throat. I will set up With house and home and shop. I’ll marry Ellen, I’ll… (He turns to see the boy still sitting on the rope coil, weeping. He tears off his coat and throws the jersey at him.)
Coat off! Jersey on! My boy We’re going to sea! (He gives the boy a shove, which knocks him over; he lies sobbing miserably.
– Peter changes tone and breaks into another song.) In dreams I’ve built myself some kindlier home
Warm in my heart and in a golden calm Where there’ll be no more fear and no more storm.
And she will soon forget her schoolhouse ways Forget the labour of those weary days
Wrapped round in kindness like September haze.
The learned at their books have no more store of wisdom than we’d close behind our door.
Compared with us the rich man would be poor.
I’ve seen in stars the life that we might share:
Fruit in the garden, children by the shore, a fair white doorstep, and a woman’s care.
But dreaming builds what dreaming can disown.
Dead fingers stretch themselves to tear it down.
I hear those voices that will not be drowned.
Calling, there is no stone In earth’s thickness to make a home,
That you can build with and remain alone.
(Hobson’s drum, at the head of the Borough procession, can be heard very distantly coming towards the hut. Peter doesn’t notice.)
Sometimes I see that boy here in this hut. He’s there now, I can see him, he is there! His eyes are on me as they were that evil day. Stop moaning, boy. Water? There’s no more water. You had the last yesterday. You’ll soon be home In harbour calm and deep. (In the distance can be heard the song of the neighbours coming up the hill.)
Chorus (off) Now! Now! … (Peter rises, goes quickly to the street door, and looks out.)
Peter: There’s an odd procession here. Parson and Swallow coming near. (Suddenly he turns on the boy, who doesn’t move.) Wait! You’ve been talking. You and that bitch were gossiping. What lies have you been telling? The Borough’s climbing up the road. To get me. Me! O I’m not scared I’ll send them off with a flea in their ear. I’ll show them. Grimes ahoy!
Chorus (off) …Or are shouted in the wind Sweeping furious through the land.
Peter You sit there watching me And you’re the cause of everything Your eyes, like his are watching me With an idiot’s drooling gaze. Will you move Or must I make you dance?
(The boy jumps up and begins dragging nets and other tackle through the cliff door.)
Chorus (off) Now confronted by the fact. Bring the branding iron and knife: What’s done now is done for life.
Peter Step boldly. For here’s the way we go to sea Down the cliff to find that shoal That’s boiling in the sea. Careful, or you’ll break your neck Down the cliff-side to the deck.
(Rope in hand he drives the boy towards the cliff door.)
Chorus (off) Now the liars shiver, for Now if they’ve cheated we shall know: We shall strike and strike to kill At the slander or the sin.
Peter I’ll pitch the stuff down. Come on! (He pitches ropes and nets.) Now Shut your eyes and down you go.
• Act 3
Night time in the Borough. While a dance is going on, Mrs. Sedley tries to convince the authorities that Grimes is a murderer, but to no avail. Ellen and Captain Balstrode confide in each other: Grimes has returned after many days at sea, and Balstrode has discovered a jersey washed ashore: a jersey that Ellen recognizes as one she had knitted for John. Mrs. Sedley overhears this, and with the knowledge that Grimes has returned, she is able to instigate another mob. Singing «Him who despises us we’ll destroy», the villagers go off in search of Grimes.
While the chorus can be heard searching for him, Grimes appears onstage, singing a long monologue: John’s death has seemingly pushed Grimes, already dangerously unstable, over the edge. Ellen and Balstrode find him, and the old captain encourages Grimes to take his boat out to sea and sink it. Grimes leaves. The next morning, the Borough begins its day anew, as if nothing has happened. There is a report from the coast guard of a ship sinking off the coast. This is dismissed by Auntie as «one of these rumours.»
Mrs. Sedley (calling through the door): Mr. Swallow … Mr. Swallow. I want the lawyer Swallow.
Auntie (coming to the door): What do you want?
Mrs. Sedley: I want the lawyer Swallow.
Auntie: He’s busy.
Mrs. Sedley: Fetch him please, this is official. Business about the Borough criminal. Please do as I tell you.
Auntie: My customers come here for peace, For quiet, away from you And all such nuisances.
Mrs. Sedley: This is an insult!
Auntie: As long as I am here you’ll find That I always speak my mind.
Mrs. Sedley: I’ll have you know your place, You baggage!
Auntie: My customers come here for peace, They take their drink, they take their ease!
Swallow (coming out): What’s the matter? Tell me what’s the matter?
Auntie (goes in and bangs door): Good night!
Mrs. Sedley (points dramatically): Look!
Swallow: I’m short-sighted you know.
Mrs. Sedley: It’s Grimes’s boat, back at last!
Swallow: That’s different. Hey. (Shouts into “The Boar”.) Is Hobson there?
Hobson (appearing): Ay, Ay, sir.
Mrs. Sedley: Good, now things are moving; and about time too!
Swallow: You’re constable of the Borough, Carter Hobson.
Hobson: Ay, Ay, sir.
Swallow: As the mayor, I ask you to find Peter Grimes. Take whatever help you need.
Hobson: Now what I claims Is he’s out at sea.
Swallow (points): But here’s his boat.
Hobson: Oh! We’ll send a posse to his hut.
Swallow: If he’s not there, you’ll search the shore, The marsh, the fields, the streets, the Borough.
Hobson: Ay, Ay, sir. (He goes into “The Boar” hailing.) Hey there! Come out and help! Grimes is around! Come on! Come on!
Mrs. Sedley: Crime – that’s my hobby – is By cities hoarded. Rarely are country minds Lifted to murder The noblest of the crimes Which are my study. And now the crime is here And I am ready!
(Hobson comes out with Boles and other fishermen. – As the dance band fades out, the people crowd out of the Moot Hall and “The Boar” and congregate on the green.)
Chorus: Who holds himself apart Lets his pride rise. Him who despises us We’ll destroy.
And cruelty becomes His enterprise. Him who despises us We’ll destroy.
With two nieces, Mrs. Sedley, Boles, Keene, Swallow and Hobson:
Our curse shall fall upon his evil day. We shall Tame his arrogance. We’ll make the murderer pay for his crime. Peter Grimes! Grimes!
(The people [still shouting] scatter in all directions. – Curtain.) Interlude VI
¤ Scene 2 ⇓
Voices Grimes! (Peter comes in, weary and demented.)
Peter Steady. There you are. Nearly home. What is home? Calm as deep water. Where’s my home? Deep in calm water. Water will drink my sorrows dry And the tide will turn.
Voices Grimes!
Peter Steady. There you are. Nearly home. The first one died, just died… The other slipped, and died… And the third will… “Accidental circumstances”… Water will drink his sorrows – my sorrows – dry And the tide will turn.
Voices Peter Grimes, Peter Grimes!
Peter Peter Grimes! Here you are! Here I am! Hurry, hurry! Now is gossip put on trial. Bring the branding iron and knife For what’s done now is done for life… Come on! Land me! “Turn the skies back and begin again”.
Voices Peter Grimes!
Peter Old Joe has gone fishing and Young Joe has gone fishing and
You’ll know who’s gone fishing when You land the next shoal.
Voices Peter Grimes!
Peter Ellen. Give me your hand. There now – my hope is held by you, If you leave me alone… Take away your hand! The argument’s finished, Friendship lost, Gossip is shouting, Everything’s said.
Voices Peter Grimes!
Peter To hell with all your mercy To hell with your revenge. And God have mercy upon you.
Voices Peter Grimes, Peter Grimes !
Peter Do you hear them all shouting my name? D’you hear them? Old Davy Jones shall answer: Come home, come home!
Voices (close at hand) Peter Grimes!
Peter (roars back at them) Peter Grimes! Peter Grimes!
(Ellen and Balstrode have come in and stand watching. Then Ellen goes up to Peter.)
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